10 Things I Hate About You: The actors that Heath Ledger beat to win main role

Not casting Ledger would have drastically changed the memorable 'Can't Take My Eyes Off You' scene

Today (31 March) marks the anniversary of 10 Things I Hate About You, the teen romantic comedy starring Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger.

The film came out in the US 21 years ago – its UK released followed four months later on 9 July – and has since become something of a cult classic.

A modern-day reworking of William Shakespeare play The Taming of the Shrew, the film follows a new student (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who gets the school’s bad boy (Ledger) to date his love interest’s ill-tempered sister (Stiles) so she can also date, as per their father’s rules.

The film has many memorable moments, one of which sees Ledger’s character Patrick attempt to woo Stiles’ Kat by performing Frankie Vali’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” in front of the whole school.

According to screenwriter Karen McCullah, speaking to New York Times for the film’s 20th anniversary last year, it was thanks to Ledger’s casting that this moment ever happened, because the Australian actor was the one to choose the song over two other contenders: “I Think I Love You” by the Partridge Family and Divinyls’ “I Touch Myself”.

The other actors who were considered for the role of Patrick Josh Hartnett, who would star in Pearl Harbor two years later, and Ashton Kutcher who filmed Dude, Where’s My Car? instead. 10 Things was Ledger’s first US film.

Ahead of his death in 2008, he would star in films including A Knight’s Tale (2001), Brokeback Mountain (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008) for which he posthumously won Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars.